You'll have a lot of fun with that PC. My man ham computer is a 2004 Vintage Dell Dimension 4600. Pentium IV at 2.2GHz, I think, 256Meg RAM. In Windows XP Home, I run FLDIGI, a browser for looking at spots, and a DX logging program all at the same time. Not zippy fast, but my fast machine is in the office (Core i5, bla bla). I wouldn't run SPICE simulations on the P4 machine but it does my other ham apps well enough.

Not bent out of shape just hate to see people was money and effort on trash.

Well, not much money was spent. And a lot of ham radio activity is spending little money and lots of effort on turning trash into something useful. Or so it used to be.

IAC, I have a Compaq Presario, with a 2 Ghz Processor, 1 GB of RAM, and XP that I salvaged from where I used to work which I use with JT65-HF and a Kenwood TS-480SAT and just the internal sound card. It is a dedicated CPU, used for nothing but that application. I have a newer, more powerful computer that I use with HRD and a YAESU FT857D for other digital work (plus Internet access to QRZ, LOTW, eQSL, email and everything else 'net related). With separate PC's and transceivers, I can monitor the JT65A bands on one, and PSK31 bands on the other. The main computer also has dual monitors, so I can watch two waterfalls, while surfing the Internet and responding to interesting eHam threads.

You'll have a lot of fun with that PC. My man ham computer is a 2004 Vintage Dell Dimension 4600. Pentium IV at 2.2GHz, I think, 256Meg RAM. In Windows XP Home, I run FLDIGI, a browser for looking at spots, and a DX logging program all at the same time. Not zippy fast, but my fast machine is in the office (Core i5, bla bla). I wouldn't run SPICE simulations on the P4 machine but it does my other ham apps well enough.

73,

Dave W8NF

The P4 2.2ghz is a socket 478 CPU and that also means that it has a much newer chipset than a 1ghz athlon. I used a P4 "prescott" 3.2 ghz overclocked to 3.5ghz with 2 gig of ram and XP pro for many years It did a decent job for some time and that family of CPU did support hyper threading which boosted efficiency and speed. It was not very green though and required serious cooling. System still runs but do not use it anymore.

Logged

--------------------------------------Ham since 1969.... Old School 20wpm REAL Extra Class..

I use an old Toshiba Satellite 110CS laptop from 1995 to run my logging and psk31/rtty/sstv programs, especially for events like Field Day. The laptop does the job quite nicely, running Windows 98SE, and a lot of these old laptops can still be found on eBay for less than $20.

Yeah, but the OP has a whole working PC for $6. And he's keeping that PC out of the landfill by using it. He's saved a bunch of money and done something "green" at the same time.

Not particularly green, at least in the long run. He's running a CRT monitor, most likely, and a pretty inefficient power supply/mobo in a "computations per joule" standpoint.

Saved money, it's true, assuming his time is free. Or if you're using it to heat your garage as well as do computation. Or, just for the thrill of resurrecting a computer boat anchor.

But what about something like a Raspberry Pi (w/o ethernet), an old LCD TV and a keyboard. I don't know if the rPi has a suitable audio interface. You're still in the <$50 range, and you've got something that consumes orders of magnitude less power.

But what about something like a Raspberry Pi (w/o ethernet), an old LCD TV and a keyboard. I don't know if the rPi has a suitable audio interface. You're still in the <$50 range, and you've got something that consumes orders of magnitude less power.

The rPi doesn't have an audio input, only stereo output, but it should work ok with a Signalink USB and Fldigi. I just got one for free (from work ) so trying this is on my todo list.

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